FOH'ers Daily Smoke

[NicPac]

8 hours ago, JohnS said:

Vegas Robaina Don Alejandro OMR Oct 2015

Vegas Robaina is a marca that admittedly doesn't enjoy a notable profile, is unlikely to be in your 'go-to' rotation and like the other brands ironically re-classified recently by Habanos S.A. as "other brands", has had a few regular production vitolas deleted since its inception as a brand in 1997. It was named after the famous Cuban tobacco grower, Alejandro Robaina, whom the Cuban Government decided to honour as the preeminent tobacco grower in Cuba in the 90's by naming a marca after him. A little over 20 years later there is only the Piramides-shaped vitola, the Unicos (52 ring gauge x 156 mm or 6.1 inches) and the Hermosos No.4, the Famosos (48 ring gauge x 127 mm or 5 inches) left. Like many other Lonsdales, Coronas and Double Coronas in the last 15 to 20 years, the Clásicos, the Familiar and the Don Alejandro have since been discontinued.

The Don Alejandro is the most recent deletion, although still available until 2017, it was a very slow seller (as is the Vegas Robaina marca overall). The late '15 Don Alejandro I smoked tonight has rested a little over 5 years and I wanted to re-visit it as Vegas Robaina is known for its prominent chocolate profile, and according to my palate, brands that share this dominant flavour profile tend to peak in the 3 to 5 year window, although I admit this is a personal generalisation and not a rule.

This Double Corona was 2 hours and 45 minutes of pure smoking enjoyment. What made it so was not the luscious chocolate and slight raisin sweetness balanced by a hint of sour dark cherries or prunes, although those flavours certainly appealed to my 'sweet tooth'. No, what made this so good for me was the gorgeous baking spice from beginning until the very end when I nubbed this. The baking spice was the dominant flavour and is something I look for and appeals to me in certain marcas as a sign of aging.

It's a shame this Double Corona has been deleted from the Habanos S.A regular production catalogue although I could understand why the VR Don Alejandro was a slow-seller. Simply speaking, judging by my personal ratings of the cigar within my Smoking Diary on Cuban Cigar Website, none of the VR Don Alejandros I've smoked with less than three years on them ever got more than a three-star rating. In contrast, the last few around the five-year mark have been five-out-of-five stars!

Beautiful cigar. I wish I had a box in my collection 

[NicPac]

2012 Dip 2

2014 BPC

[Paso]

[Raskol]

C&C time. Have a great weekend! FOH!

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[Wookie]

[Devo]

A few from Black Friday. Thanks for the Boli PC @GVan it was fantastic!

[Bijan]

Reyes

[JohnS]

11 hours ago, VKUTT said:

I've had exactly 2 Fundies in my life, and they were both delicious. I'm dying to get some more but the already substantially pricy Fundies have suddenly become outrageously expensive! They sure are great tho. 

Glad you are enjoying the ones you have. 

CHEERS?

Recent price changes are certainly frustrating for us all! Like the Lanceros for Cohiba and Especiales for Montecristo, the Fundadores for me continues that fine tradition of providing an excellent smoking experience over 2 hours or more (even despite the re-lights in this case).

15 hours ago, NicPac said:

Beautiful cigar. I wish I had a box in my collection 

I know! I was thinking yesterday I wish I had just one more box (of Vegas Robaina Don Alejandro) myself!

[Shatner's Bassoon]

BRC MSU NOV 18

 

[zjory]

[SigmundChurchill]

Esmeralda

[MigsG]

Last night’s amazing ‘18 BRC with a dash of Lagavulin 16.

 

[Hotboxx]

18 holes of golf now this JL2

[havanaclub]

These are just straight
ARS OCT 18. Sad to see I am down to the bottom row. Glad I have a few reinforcements


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[Rupe]

Short De Punch

TPO - SEP 19

[GVan]

A few from this weekend - Epi De Luxe from @Devo and a Boli PC.

[Islandboy]

And now for something completely different...

I was gifted two of these, from a (semi) celebrity charity golf tournament here last weekend. I’ll leave my opinion of the wisdom of having such an event right now out of it. But the cigar is actually pleasant and tasty - definitely not your average NC. I think it said Honduran wrapper and filler, with Indonesian binder. And not exactly inexpensive I see. Here’s my pet peeve with it though - the band is annoyingly close to the end as you can see, so I went in for early removal. Damn thing wouldn’t budge, and I couldn’t locate a seam at all, so I took the semi-surgical approach and started carefully tearing it away. Turns out it’s glossy paper on both sides, and there’s some level of adhesive on the entire backside. ???!!

Needless to say, bits of wrapper came with it. Lovely. Details people, details. 

[zigarrenziggy]

RASS REG Sep 19

[Islandboy]

2 hours ago, havanaclub said:

These are just straight
ARS OCT 18. Sad to see I am down to the bottom row. Glad I have a few reinforcements


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On Thanksgiving night I had a La Trova and an Esmeralda back-to-back. Granted the La Trova had a couple years on the latter, but La Trova definitely won with a bolder taste profile IMO. 

[NicPac]

2012 HDM DC

2014 Short

[Paso]

[Chucko8]

Stout and cigar afternoon with a Medio tempo custom rolll.

[Trimming]

#3

 

[Raskol]

C&C time. Connie 1 (2017) - 24:24

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[Wookie]

Topes